Shakti Mills rapes: Death for repeat offenders

Three repeat offenders have been given death sentence by a sessions court in Mumbai in connection with the Shakti Mills gang rape case.

Pronouncing the verdict, the court said, "Mumbai gang rape accused have least respect for law. They don’t have the potential for reformation as per facts of the case."

"Any leniency in this case would be a travesty of justice. Life term would be inadequate sentence, which harms the society. We have to do justice to the victim and society," the court added.

Saying that the rape victim’s family has suffered tremendous agony, the court added that the accused were emboldened as they were not arrested for the first offence they committed in the same compound.

The three rapists, Kasim Bengali, Vijay Jadhav and Mohammed Salim Ansari had raped a photo journalist in the abandoned Shakti Mills compound on August 22 last year. A month ago, they had raped an 18-year-old telephone operator.

In addition to the three, the journalist was raped by Siraj Rehman and a minor boy.

The trio are the first to get death under Section 376 E for repeat offenders, a law brought into to effect after the 2012 Delhi gangrape case.